ITU Media Centre

Korea invests in triathlon coaches

20 December 2018

For the second consecutive year, coaches from across the world have gathered in Incheon (Korea) to participate in the KTF-ITU Triathlon Coaching Education Programme, a fantastic opportunity for 68 coaches to increase their knowledge of our sport and to continue the efforts of promoting triathlon, especially in Asia.

For the second consecutive year, coaches from across the world have gathered in Incheon (Korea) to participate in the KTF-ITU Triathlon Coaching Education Programme, a fantastic opportunity for 68 coaches to increase their knowledge of our sport and to continue the efforts of promoting triathlon, especially in Asia.

“ITU is extremely proud of our education programme and the opportunities we are providing for athletes, coaches and officials, especially from less developed National Federations, to increase the number of athletes and the level of our coaches and officials”, said ITU president and IOC member, Marisol Casado. “The continuous support of the Korean Triathlon Federation, the Korean Olympic Committee and the Olympic Solidarity Commission of the IOC has been a key for the success of this program, and we can only thank all the institutions for the help on developing our sport towards an even greater future”, she said.

The programme, organized by ITU Development and the Korean Federation, is the biggest worldwide coaching education project in our sport in Asia, and is funded by KSOC (Korean Sport & Olympic Committee). Only four sports have this privilege in Korea: Cycling, Taekwondo, Athletics and Triathlon, proving that our sport will have a tremendous path for development not only in Korea, but also in all the Continent.

“This is an outstanding opportunity for developing nations to attend a worldwide coaching education project and gain ITU coach qualification at two levels. There is no other coaching project in our calendar that gives the opportunity to have coach candidates gathered together from all the 5 continents in the same education environment led by multinational ITU coaching facilitator team. This is an unique learning, sharing, networking and cultural experience for all”, said Zita Csovelyak, Head of Development and National Federations Services in ITU.

A total of 68 coaches participated in the course this year. In the Level 1 course, all five continents were represented, with participants from 21 different National Federations. Out of the 34 coaches, 13 were female, and all of them got their accreditation and will start working from athletes in their own countries as soon as possible.

At the same time, another 34 coaches participated in the Level 2 Coaches camp, coming from 22 different countries and with an smaller amount of female coaches participating, but with some of them coming from the course organized last year, which gave them the Level 1 certificate.

Is the case of Uyanga Erdenebat, from Mongolia, who is now after the second camp a Level 2 certified coach, and who had the opportunity to coach some athletes this year in the Asian Games, where triathletes from Mongolia competed for the first time.

“For us it is a privileged not only to have had the opportunity to already organized the course in 2017 and 2018, but also to have extended the contract so that in the coming years some other coaches could benefit from this program. And I am really looking forward to see some of these coaches now applying their knowledge in races all around the world, like some of them are already doing”, said Justin Park, President of the Asian Triathlon Confederation and member of the ITU Executive Board.

The courses, which were a complete success and all participants got accredited, were defined for ODA Recipient Countries - as it is defined by the United Nations (UN) –. There were about one hundred National Federations across five continents eligible to benefit from the programme led by accredited ITU Coaching Facilitators.

The aim of the project, which will continue in the next years, is to provide opportunities for developing nations to access coaching education in triathlon and get qualified by ITU as triathlon coaches at two levels: ITU Triathlon Level 1 Coach and ITU Triathlon Level 2 Coach

Last year, in the first edition of this Programme, 55 coaches were awarded by ITU Triathlon Coach Certification after their successful assessment.